Digital Projection energizes the exhibition 'Deep Fakes' with its 3D technology

Visitors to the avant-garde exhibition 'Deep Fakes' of Lausanne (Switzerland) can see how the Satellite MLS system of Digital Projection, with Multi-View 3D projection technology, digitally reconstructs the Michaelsberg Abbey, a monastery located in Bamberg (Germany), world heritage of the UNESCO.

The exhibition Deep Fakes: Art and its Double, which is celebrated until next February in the EPFL Pavilions of Lausanne (Switzerland), offers a unique showcase of the emerging digital culture that is shaking up the art world.

From the artificial intelligence to computer vision, from the interactive and immersive media to the 3D and 5D printing, technology is revolutionizing the way we conceive, create and experience art, and Deep Fakes is the first exhibition to address this transformation in scale and intensity.

with 1.000 M² of exhibition surface, Deep Fakes "is the culmination of several years of new creative practices arising from the world of computer science", explains the curator of the exhibition and director of the EPFL Pavilions, Sarah Kenderdine, who has called the new technological elements that borrow, or are based on existing works of art, as "great cultural falsifications".

For this professor of museology, with over twenty years of experience in the development and production of large-scale immersive and interactive exhibitions for museums, as well as for several world heritage sites in Asia, like Angkor in Cambodia, or the Olympia of Greece in Europe, "it was not long ago that artists and producers began to fully understand the potential of computational production and new art forms".

Among the 'great cultural fakes' on display at epfl pavilions, located on the campus of the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL), Are The Next Rembrandt, that uses artificial intelligence to create a 'new' work of the Dutch master; The Golden Calf, by multimedia artist Jeffrey Shaw, that can only be seen when the visitor surrounds its pedestal in a 'dance of veneration', and Michaelsberg Abbey, in Bamberg (Germany), a complete digital reconstruction of the interior of the monastery, thousand years old.

In addition to the twenty-one high-tech works of art and virtual experiences on display, visitors to this new avant-garde exhibition can see another technological first: the combination of the system Satellite MLS of Digital Projection with the technology of 3D Multi-View projection to help rebuild Michaelsberg Abbey, a Benedictine monastery world heritage of the UNESCO.

The physical abbey of Michaelsberg has been closed for renovations since in 2012 structural damage discovered. As part of the restoration process, the city of Bamberg commissioned the specialist in 3D laser scanning ArcTron a high-resolution photorealistic recreation of the church interior, containing important works of art, sculptures and architecture from the late Renaissance and Rococo.

Innovation in VR and visualization

for Deep Fakes, the research group on virtual reality and visualization of the Bauhaus University of Weimar, together with the company Consensive, developed real-time rendering techniques for ArcTron 3D models, allowing them to be presented in immersive virtual reality through Multi-View, Digital Projection's multi-user 3D projection technology.

The system that is in Lausanne from this manufacturer, which was also installed by the Bauhaus University, consists of a projector Insight 4K HFR 360, along with six pairs of glasses manufactured by Volfoni.

Thanks to ultra-fast frame rates (360 Fps) Multi-View exclusives, this projector is capable of providing a true 3D experience to multiple viewers, each with a vision of the exhibition that adapts to their change of position. This allows users to see and interact with each other in a truly collaborative way..

"Instead of providing 120 frames per second, that are only sufficient for a user's 3D, Insight Satellite MLS 4K HFR 360 offers an unbeatable view of 360 frames", underlines Kenderdine, who explains that technology is simply revolutionary for heritage experts, as it can bring a shared experience to all who contemplate a digital work of art.

"Providing each user with a unique perspective of an object allows us totally new forms of collaboration", Kenderdine enthusiastically emphasizes.

In the Satellite MLS specification (modular laser system), "the Insight Satellite MLS 4K HFR model 360 offers museum professionals an even more attractive solution for modern multimedia exhibitions", Ensures Thierry Ollivier, of Digital Projection and responsible for the participation of the manufacturer in the project Deep Fakes.

With Satellite MLS, the small, lightweight projector head is dissociated from the light source, allowing brilliant 4K projection with a compact size and minimal noise/heat generation near exposed objects. "This unique design," adds Ollivier, "makes it ideal for theatres and opera houses., historic buildings and other applications with heat/space constraints".

Technological potential for culture

Technologies such as Multi-View and Satellite MLS will play an increasingly important role in future art exhibitions and museums., where the AV system will help visitors immerse themselves in increasingly interactive experiences.

"In the field of museums, these tools offer new ways to tell stories: stories that are not necessarily didactic, stories that arise and respond to user interaction and stories that visitors can embody and inhabit – concludes Kenderdine.. The audiovisual concept opens up the archive and gives it much more potential for reuse. Offers artists, creators and conservators a new canvas to create aesthetic frames never seen before, and modes of engagement that transport and delight visitors".

As for the Digital Projection solution in particular, "the assembly has worked like a dream; we had their remote assistance and it got up and running in half a day. The public also seems delighted. They recognize the difference; it's unlike anything they've seen before. EPFL scientists have also visited the exhibition on multiple occasions to see the new opportunities these technologies offer.".

Ollivier does not hesitate to underline the role of Professor Kenderdine "with whom I have worked for the last ten years on projects related to projection and virtual reality; I applaud his talent and his efforts to bridge the gap between technology and art.. with Deep Fakes, thanks to the combination of digital projection's expertise, Consensive and Volfoni, she and her team have demonstrated to a diverse audience, from world-renowned cultural authorities to local students, what a virtual reality experience should look like. Seeing is believing".

Other articles on Consensive, Deep Fakes, Digital Projection, EPFL Pavilions, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne-EPFL, Bauhaus University of Weimar, Volfoni